The Davy Back Game was actually very clever. It was harmless fun that expanded the universe and the relationships between the different pirate gangs whilst giving the main characters something interesting to do each. It didn't hurt the rest of the series but it did chew up a lot of pointless time.

Sanji's nose is unforgivable though. There could have been any number of reasons why someone needed a blood transfusion... maybe show Hordy and his gang as being something of a threat and wounding one of the weaker characters like Usopp or Robin or Nami... Oda tried too hard there.

That is exactly why I love One Piece. It continues evolving but never goes over the top or forgetting what made people like it in the first place. It also keeps the focus on the main characters and not the million side characters. (GIF semi related)

One Piece is still incredible long and the entire plot of the show hasn't moved much since the beginning. It's a bad thing but it's also a good thing because it means One Piece can only get better and if you enjoy long anime then even better.

I disagree about it not moving but I partially see what your taking about. And atleast all that extra time is spent either building onto the story's world and its characters rather than spinning its wheels with overly long fights and pointlessly long fillers( if you watch the anime)

Well of course the general story of Luffy trying to get to One Piece has moved a lot. He's more than half way there in fact. I meant more to do with the past and also what is happening in the present, rev army/shanks etc. There is so much that we want to know but we'll have to wait a long time before we get told any of it. To be fair I'd love to rewatch One Piece because it's a lot of fun and I'm not too bothered about them not telling us everything.

Oh yeah, its going to be a few years before we learn about Shanks, the Revolutionarys, Blackbeard, the world goverment, the void century, etc but I excited for when we do and we atleast get bits and pieces rather than huge exposition dumps

there's nothing wrong with side characters getting to have the spotlight now and then, bleach overdoes it with some of the secondary characters i admit, but i still appreciate the time spent on the lesser characters i love. Hisagi Shuhei ftw

I love seeing some depth to secondary characters but Bleach and Naruto have given more and more focus to the secondarys to the point that the main characters are almost forgotten. This is why the war with Aizen was three years long when it could have been shorter

Actually the problem's a little different to that. It's not that they give focus to the side characters so much as they have too many side-characters to focus on. Naruto started out well enough. First there were 9 then in came Lee, Neji and Ten Ten (who has done nothing of any worth in the series) and then Gaara, Temari and Puppet guy.

That's a nice, robust cast and it shows it's worth in the Chunin exams where most of the characters get a time to really shine and especially chasing down Sasuke. The problem comes from the fact that as time went on the story began dropping the side-characters in Naruto's case and then adding more and more in the case of Bleach.

Naruto's story got more and more naruto-centric meaning we had to wait a while before we got to see any of the side-characters really do anything. When we get to the Battle for Konoha arc very few of the side-characters get a chance to shine with Hinata coming the closest to being important (... let's forget that nobody mentions the confession of love nor the selfless sacrifice thing again for now) with the others doing very little. Konohamaru gets a swing but even then it's all down to Naruto to defeat all the Pains.

At that point Naruto has become so strong that nobody else can keep up with him so throwing more time to the side-characters is pointless as they'll all get shoved aside as Naruto's problems are too big for them and vice-versa.

Bleach though puts a reasonable amount of time into most of it's many, many side characters. 10 humans, 13 captains, 13 lieutenants, various seated members, 10 espada + fraccion + other arrancar and now Quincys. The only time we saw them tone down the side-characters was in the fullbringer arc which I maintain could have been the best arc in the series if it hadn't been rushed out by discontented fans.

OP gives things time to breathe and introduces things at their own pace and well in advance for the audience to acclimatise. It's good writing.

When I said that I meant like jumping the shark. An example being DBZ having frieza as this ultimate being then Cell then Majin Buu, or Bleach having Ichigo constantly gaining a new ridiculous power. Luffy gets stronger but its always foreshadowed that he will need to get stronger for the future things he has to face

I guess it's also the setting, that helps with that, though.
In DB, at first, there was the tournament. Then the world and soon enough, they didn't have anything bigger than the galaxy to protect. They were just too fast to move the scale upwards.
In One Piece, there is the journey. As far as I know, they have only just come to the other half of the world. The JUST started the other half of the journey.
And in this half, you can imagine bigger and greater things as you go along, because it's not the ******* world as a whole.
Who knows how big the One Piece-world is?

Also, as far as I can tell, no one hates Dragonball Z. The only time I've ever seen someone proclaim their own hatred for it (rather than pointing out all the other they assume hate it), is when I post a comment like this, saying that no one hates it, in which it's impossible to tell if they're actually being genuine because that's just what people do. For example:
Me: No one hates chocolate. It's great.
Anon: I totally hate chocolate.
People are constantly going on about how much others hate Dragonball Z, but where the hell are they getting their information from? Certainly not actual haters, that's for sure.

And how many 30 year olds have you asked about their tastes? 40 year olds? 50?
At 18 you live in a very narrow world. Don't think that because it's broader than when you were 15 that its scope is in any way exhaustive.

DBZ takes Disney-tier violence to the next level by actually having contact and some sort of consequence. The problem is that that is only "amazing" if all you know is Disney. When you get older and are now exposed to violence in a social/psychological context (where it gets its meaning), you just can't go back anymore. DBZ is, "******** and his cheerleading squad fight purely invented villains." 300 episodes of filler -- even the fights are 99% filler.

Violence is the final means to resolve a conflict. In adult entertainment, the conflict (story) is the point and the violence is merely a plot element. But in DBZ the enemies are created for no reason but to generate a fight. The violence is the only point. So you have completely scripted violence with no meaning after. The enemies had no logical place in the universe, no path, they're just there, and only there to be overcome by Goku. And Goku isn't real -- he's a brainless faggot who would never be able to make it in society. He's only there to be the clueless idealist to fight the bad guys.

Bitching about Dragon Ball Z not dealing with social/psychological context is stupid. Why? Because it's a gag action action comic made for kids. Expecting adult complexity in something like DBZ is laughably moronic.

Dragon Ball Z isn't complex, but it wasn't supposed to be. It's like a roller coaster. You let it take you through all of it's twists and turns without having a care in the world.

Complaining about action being the first resort? In an action series? Yeah, seems legit.

You still believe that the enemies were there just for a fight? All of the main villains, excluding maybe Buu, had reasons behind their motives, and didn't just fight Goku for no reason whatsoever. Meaningless? The fight between Goku and Frieza meant avenging the Saiyan race and all of the other people Frieza killed. The fight with Cell meant deciding the fate of the Earth.

"He's only there to be the clueless idealist to fight the bad guys."? .......And Ichigo isn't? Regardless, Goku is still a likable character, unlike Mr. Bland Ichigo. He's not supposed to be a realistic character.

You are one of the most hypocritical people I have ever seen. Bleach resorts to violence first, but it's perfectly okay when it does it. Bleach has terrible amounts of filler, but it's okay when it does it. Bleach is just as shallow as DBZ is, but it's okay when it does it. This is your way of thinking, and it's pretty stupid.

First off, you can seriously go and **** yourself for all the "You haven't obtained the grand wisdom that I have in your puny years, child!!!" condescension.
Secondly, Dragonball Z is supposed to be simple. A guy with magic powers getting beat down and fighting his way back is something that people of all ages can enjoy.
Also, you say that DBZ's enemies were "created for no reason to generate a fight". You could say that about any ******* villain in anything, for example, "Bane was created for no reason but to fight Batman.".

As does Dragonball Z. Frieza was a galactic emperor would ruled over many planets and was going to planet Namek to invade and take over that planet as well, but Goku and the gang step in to stop him. It's not all that complex, but it's still a story. It isn't just "Muhahahaha! I am evil and will kill you all! Die!" as you seem to think.

That's a position, not a story. Story would be how he got there; why he wanted the position. Instead we have, "I am a bad guy and I head the bad guys."
Seriously, the Rowdieruff Boys from the Powerpuff Girls have more of a backstory than that, and they were in, what, two episodes?

You don't have to trace a characters ancestry back to the point of the big bang for it to be part of a story. Also, I believe Frieza was acting as galactic emperor to follow in the footsteps of his father, King Cold.

The ones with that stupid ******* kid who controls the weather... If I didn't know when the fillers were to end, I might have just stopped watching it at that point and leave it for a few months so I can just skip the ****.

You'll have to agree with me on this one: the producers ****** my patience sideways, raped it in the butt, scatted all over it and then tossed it in the ground. I was patient, thought it was turning me on, but it just making me nauseous after a while.
tl;dr I don't like fillers

That's why I do everything on a 5 year lag.
Shows: Able to skip filler, know in advance which shows are likely to be good
Games: Same steadily advancing gaming experience, never have to buy a top-end PC
Movies: Available in whatever format I want to view them in

All: much, much cheaper.

The downside is spoilers, but I couldn't avoid that even if I bought things the day after they came out.